I was doing a short study on James 2:1-13 in being brief, I said: “that the royal law is basically the law of Christ or the law of liberty which very much entails love.” Do you think I have done justice to the passage by just stating that?<\/p>\n\t
“Law” most often refers to a set of rules, though it can at times refer to a single rule. For example, Hebrews 2:10 states that God will put His\u00a0laws<\/em> into people’s minds. He is not talking about multiple sets of rules but about all the individual rules. Thus, you find the law of jealousy in Numbers 5:29 or the law of the husband in Romans 7:2.<\/p>\n James is talking about a law that is according to the Scripture. Since the Scripture contains the law of God, the law under consideration is one law found in the body of the law. The law James wishes us to consider is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself<\/em>,” which is from Leviticus 19:15. Jesus had quoted this law as the second greatest command (Matthew 22:39) because it is a foundation for many of the other commands in God’s law (Romans 13:8-10).<\/p>\n James is in the midst of discussing the fair and equal treatment of brethren. He refers to “You shall love your neighbor as yourself<\/em>” as “royal” to emphasize that this is a directive of our God and King. If you go back to Leviticus 19, notice in the context how often God says, “I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:10,12,14,16,18,25,28,30,31,34,37). The law is not one to be ignored because it is a command of God. While we are not under the Old Law, this law is also a part of the Law of Christ (Galatians 5:14).<\/p>\n Perhaps you are congratulating yourself on keeping such an important law and it is important to keep this law. But James then ties it back to the idea of fair and equal treatment by pointing out that showing partiality breaks this law. Again, we can go back to the original discussion in Leviticus 19. “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly<\/em>” (Leviticus 19:15). Partiality breaks the law of loving your neighbor as yourself. It did so under the Law of Moses and it continues to be so under the Law of Christ.<\/p>\n James then expands his point that when you break one law, you become guilty of breaking the entire law. This is because all the laws hang on two points:<\/p>\n “”Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him,” ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets”<\/em>” (Matthew 22:36-40).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To illustrate, James picks two of the Ten Commandments (laws that are also a part of the Law of Christ). If you commit murder, it doesn’t matter that you managed to not commit adultery because both of these laws are based on “love your neighbor as yourself.”<\/p>\n “For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is\u00a0 any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”<\/em>” (Romans 13:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus, breaking one command makes you guilty of breaking the Law as a whole. Therefore, the conclusion is that we must speak and act as though we will be judged by the whole Law of Christ and not just portions that we happen to like.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I was doing a short study on James 2:1-13 in being brief, I said: “that the royal law is basically the law of Christ or the law of liberty which very much entails love.” Do you think I have done justice to the passage by just stating that? Answer: “Law” most often refers to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-35881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48923,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-james-say-we-will-be-judged-by-the-law-of-liberty\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":0},"title":"Why does James say we will be judged by the law of liberty?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm having some difficulties understanding James 2:8-13. When he talks about the royal law in verses 8-11, it clearly refers to some of the ten commandments. But I get confused in verse 12 \"So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-paul-talking-about-physical-circumcision-or-something-else-in-galatians-53-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":1},"title":"Is Paul talking about physical circumcision or something else in Galatians 5:3-4?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I've read some of your articles and they've been helpful. Thanks. I'm a kind of confused about what is written in Galatians 5:3-4 \"I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50836,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/law-and-legalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":2},"title":"Law and Legalism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by H. E. Phillips via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0- January 6, 1994 Law is: \"A general rule of action or conduct established or enforced by a sovereign authority; as, a law of Caesar; a law of God\" (Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged). Webster says of legalism: \"Close conformity to law.\" Law and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70107,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-new-testament-a-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":3},"title":"Is the New Testament a Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Perz The Bible is undeniably divided into two key sections-the Old Testament and the New Testament. This division is described in the Bible in various ways, some literally and some figuratively. One such contrast is seen when the Bible refers to the Old Testament as the \"Law of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51422,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-the-perfect-god-give-an-imperfect-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":4},"title":"Why did the perfect God give an imperfect law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did God give men an imperfect law as stated in Hebrews, that is, the Old Law, when God is all perfect? Answer: The Law given to Moses was a good law. \"So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good\" (Romans 7:12).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18707,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-just-one-sin-such-as-adultery-keep-you-out-of-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":35881,"position":5},"title":"Will just one sin, such as adultery, keep you out of heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A lady with a Baptist background asked me if I thought one sin would keep her from Heaven. She said \"suppose a person was living in an adulterous marriage, but done everything else right such as attending church, studying the Bible, etc. Would this person go to Heaven?\" Could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}